Method and apparatus for reducing latency of LTE uplink transmissions

1. A method in a user equipment, the method comprising:

acquiring an indication that indicates a set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission in an uplink subframe;

selecting a subset of resource blocks from the set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission based on a selection criterion, wherein the selection criterion uses at least a resource set size acquired from the indication, a modulo function, and an identifier associated with the user equipment; and

transmitting a physical uplink shared channel in the selected subset of resource blocks in the uplink subframe.

2. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the subset of resource blocks comprises a first subset of resource blocks,

wherein the indication is a higher layer message from a layer higher than a physical layer,

wherein the method further comprises receiving a physical layer message, the physical layer message indicating a second subset of resource blocks within the set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe, and

wherein transmitting comprises transmitting physical uplink shared channel in the selected first subset of resource blocks in the uplink subframe only if the first subset of resource blocks belongs to the second subset of resource blocks.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the indication is implicitly indicated via a RACH configuration.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the indication includes at least a physical layer message.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selection criterion further uses one or more of a subframe number and a resource block aggregation level.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the set of frequency domain resource blocks is smaller than an uplink transmission bandwidth configuration.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the indication is a bitmap indication that indicates whether or not each resource block in the set of frequency domain resource blocks is assigned for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission.

8. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the user equipment has a user equipment cell radio network temporary identifier, and

wherein selecting further comprises a selecting the subset of resource blocks in response to not detecting a downlink control information Format 0/4 with a cyclic redundancy code scrambled by the user equipment cell radio network temporary identifier on a Downlink (DL) control channel for the uplink subframe.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving higher layer signalling indicating open loop power control parameters; and

determining a transmission power for physical uplink shared channel transmission in the subset of resources based on the open loop power control parameters.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising selecting a cyclic shift for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe based on at least an identifier of the user equipment.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a cyclic shift for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission; and

selecting a scrambling initialization for the physical uplink shared channel transmission based on at least the determined cyclic shift for the demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising selecting an orthogonal cover code sequence for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe based on at least an identifier of the user equipment.

13. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining an orthogonal cover code sequence for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission; and

selecting a scrambling initialization for the physical uplink shared channel transmission based on at least the determined orthogonal cover code sequence for the demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to acquire an indication that indicates a set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission in an uplink subframe, the controller also configured to select a subset of resource blocks from the set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission based on a selection criterion, wherein the selection criterion uses at least a resource set size acquired from the indication, a modulo function, and an identifier associated with the apparatus; and

a transceiver configured to transmit a physical uplink shared channel in the selected subset of resource blocks in the uplink subframe.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 ,

wherein the subset of resource blocks comprises a first subset of resource blocks,

wherein the indication is a higher layer message from a layer higher than a physical layer,

wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a physical layer message, the physical layer message indicating a second subset of resource blocks within the set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe, and

wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit physical uplink shared channel in the selected first subset of resource blocks in the uplink subframe only if the first subset of resource blocks belongs to the second subset of resource blocks.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the selection criterion further uses one or more of a subframe number and a resource block aggregation level.

17. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the indication is a bitmap indication that indicates whether or not each resource block in the set of frequency domain resource blocks is assigned for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission.

18. The apparatus according to claim 14 ,

wherein the transceiver is configured to receive higher layer signalling indicating open loop power control parameters, and

wherein the controller is configured to determine a transmission power for physical uplink shared channel transmission in the subset of resources based on the open loop power control parameters.

19. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the controller is configured to select a parameter for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe based on at least an identifier of the apparatus.

20. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a parameter for a demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission and configured to select a scrambling initialization for the physical uplink shared channel transmission based on at least the determined parameter for the demodulation reference signal for the physical uplink shared channel transmission in the uplink subframe.